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Flight of the Butterflies unlocks mystery of the monarchs

by AirTalk

A Monarch butterfly is in a flower in Los Angeles, California. The Monarch is famous for its southward migration and northward return in summer in the Americas which spans the life of three to four generations of the butterfly. GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

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Monarch butterflies may be a common sight much of the year for those living in the U.S. and Canada, but where do they disappear to in the winter? That’s the question the late scientist Fred Urquhart spent much of his life trying to answer.

The film “The Flight of the Butterflies,” shown in 3D and IMAX, tells the story of Urquhart’s quest to track the migration patterns of monarchs-- famous for their yearly flight from Central Mexico to the U.S. and Canada and back-- and follows the butterflies on one of the longest known insect migrations.